1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for editing digitized data or data groups relating to computers.
This application is based on the patent application No. Hei 9-69922 filed in Japan, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, the process of editing digitized data or data groups (hereinafter, referred to as digital contents) relating to computers, for example, when performing an editing operations such as modeling in computer graphics on a plurality of computers via a network, it was necessary to first download the contents data stored in the server to a client via the network, then perform the editing operation on said client, afterwhich the contents data of the obtained results are sent back to the server via the network once again.
However, with the above mentioned method, there exists problems such as the overloading of the network when the amount of the contents data is large.
The present invention, hence, proposes to offer a digital contents editing method and apparatus therefor which allows the execution of the editing operation of the digital contents over a plurality of computers without overloading the network.
In order to achieve this objective, the present invention proposes a digital contents editing method for performing the editing operation of the digital contents by gathering the initial data of the digital contents and the editing operation information which has digitized the editing operation of the digital contents in at least one computer, while transferring these data to all the computers which are to be involved in the editing operation, and by having each of those computers digitize the editing operation of the digital contents and create an editing operation information, and finally, by having only those editing operation information communicated via the network.
In addition, the present invention proposes a digital contents editing method and apparatus therefor having a server perform the editing of the digital contents by shared operation with the connected clients via a network. The server achieves this objective by, at the least, recording the initial data of the digital contents, by sending the information necessary for the start of the digital contents editing operation to a client according to a request from said client, by orderly accumulating as history, the editing operation information which has digitized the editing operation of the digital contents sent from the client, and by sending said editing operation information to other clients. The present invention also proposes a recording medium which records a program which allows a computer to perform the above described function.
In addition, the present invention proposes a digital contents editing method and apparatus therefor having a client perform the editing of the digital contents by shared operation with the connected server via a network. The client achieves this objective by obtaining from the server and recording the information necessary for the start of the digital contents editing operation, by digitizing the editing operation of the digital contents and sending that to the server as the editing operation information, and by recording, as necessary, the editing operation information sent from the server.
According to the above, the data which is sent among the server and the clients is simply the editing operation information. Therefore, it is possible to execute the digital contents editing operation over a plurality of computers without overloading the network.